Kady Cross's Blog, page 3
November 3, 2011
Griffin King by Don Higgins
My friend the fabulous Don Higgins has done some sketches of the cast of The Girl in the Steel Corset. Here's his interpretation of Griffin. What do you think?
Griffin King, Duke of Greythorne by Don Higgins
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October 11, 2011
Miss Emily
Continuing on with character inspiration for The Steampunk Chronicles. When I saw Lily Cole in St. Trinians I knew she was my Emily. Can't you just see her with dreads and goggles?
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September 29, 2011
Introducing Finley Jayne
So, here she is, Miss Finley Jayne:
Finley might have started out looking like the fabulous Emma Watson, but she soon took on her ow look, as characters do once I get to know them. Still, I think EW could play Fin in a movie version of the Steampunk Chronicles, although I'd have to see her throw a punch first!
Your thoughts?
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September 23, 2011
August 21, 2011
I am in love with this
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Isn't this outfit completely gorgeous? It's by LoriAnn. She has a website – http://lorianncostumedesigns.com/ – on which she showcases her amazing work. She also has an Etsy page so you can buy these reasonably priced beauties!
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August 9, 2011
2011 Steampunk Bizarre
Poster for the Steampunk Bizarre in Hartford this fall. I'll be there, along with a host of other guests. Click on the poster to go to Dr. Grymm's site for more details and Steampunk awesomeness.
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August 2, 2011
Thank You!
A big thanks to all of you who made the YA Scavenger Hunt a huge success!
For those of you not on Eastern time, the word for Heather was HOMESTEAD and the next blog after mine is Marley Gibson's.
If you missed the sneak peek at The Girl in the Clockwork Collar, sign up for my newsletter. I'll be sending a subscribers-only excerpt out soon.
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August 1, 2011
Welcome to the YA Scavenger Hunt!
On this hunt you will be able to gain access to exclusive bonus material, sign up for giveaways, and get an all access pass to top secret insider information. This fabulous sneak peek into what's coming up in YA literature is for one day only!
As an extra bonus we've put together a puzzle with one keyword found on each website. Complete it and you will be eligible for a fantastic GRAND PRIZE which will include signed editions of books, signed bookmarks, jewelry, and many more exclusive gifts with at least one from EVERY AUTHOR!
Directions: Copy and paste the puzzle below onto a document or blank email page and fill it out as you proceed through the Scavenger Hunt. Search for keywords, one on each website that will be highlighted in RED, and insert them into the puzzle, then fill out the Google form here.
Welcome fans of young adult literature! Don't forget to _______ up in time to join our special event! In ____________ you roll the dice and, like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Our scavenger hunt is very similar. Surprises wait around every corner. Turn one page and you're chasing a _________ through a _____________. Turn another and you are being _________ by a _______ which leaves your heart ________. YA ________s are full of ___________ heroes who must ___________ themselves for the greater good. Some of the characters travel through ______ or have a _________ __________. If there is one thing YA has taught us, it's that if you leave your ___________ keep an eye out for a patrolling ________. They're very dangerous. Maybe not so frightening as a ____________, but still you should be careful. Also beware lest you become __________ by vampires. ______________ one is a different story. Just remember that bite has ___________ ramifications and that afterwards the sun can ______ you unless you get bitten by a glittering type. Whether you like dark, paranormal, romance, fantasy, ___________, Sci-Fi, or a combination of those, we've got something for you.
We think that each fan is a __________ and we love you all!
I'm hosting the fabulous Heather Davis. Here is a behind the scenes post about her book The Clearing. In it you'll find Heather's secret word for the hunt. No doubt you'll also leave with the burning desire to read her book!
A Behind the Scenes look at The Clearing by Heather Davis
If you've read my novel The Clearing, you already know that the novel is set in the town of Rockville, a fictional place in the not-so fictional North Cascade Mountains in my home state, Washington. I've told the story a few times about how I thought of the idea, gazing out at the view of my neighbor's barn as the mist rolled in over his field.
But I've never revealed the inspiration for The Briggs' farmhouse, which plays such an integral part in The Clearing.
For those of you who haven't read The Clearing, it's the story of Amy, a girl recovering from an abusive relationship, who meets and falls for Henry, a boy trapped in the year 1944. Since it is a time-travel story of sorts, there are scenes that take place at Henry's farmhouse in 1944. A vivid setting was important to the success of the story.
Luckily, I had the perfect old farmhouse in mind…
The homestead, like the barn, belonged to my neighbor Tommy. The little house was set on over one hundred wild acres near the river and hadn't been lived in for a good thirty years. I noticed it often, back in the days when I'd go with Tommy and his littlest son to feed their cows. The house stood off to the side of the mud road, beyond three wire and post fences. Someone always had to hop out of the truck to open those fences, one of us in the truck, I mean. So, there was always plenty time for looking around.
The homestead had been Tommy's childhood home until, during one of the floods, the Sauk River altered its course. I never really got the whole story, like if the house itself had been flooded, but the water changing course meant that the family couldn't live there anymore. In an area of the North Cascades that can seem already abandoned, this house stood empty, wanting.
When I sat down to write The Clearing, many winters after I'd left Washington's Skagit Valley, Tommy's homestead became the fictional home of the Briggs family — people lost in time, just like the little house. As I wrote, I wished I had photograph of the old place, but many of the details came back to me.
Tommy's cows sometimes grazed in the front yard of the homestead, chewing down the neglected lawn that grew up around the now-wild quince and rosebushes. The grass must have been sweet because even when the Herefords were fenced out, a cow or two made it through the wires to dine. Tommy's son, who was about three back then, used to yell out, "You a nuisance!" to the cows, which was pretty sophisticated vocabulary for a little tyke.
During all those trips to the river, only once did Tommy show me the inside of the homestead. Maybe, it was for him, a place of disappointment — a happy family home now in its own kind of ruin. I remember as we stepped inside the small living room, Tommy told me how packrats (real animals!) had taken over the house. I could see evidence of the invasion in the bits of stuffing pulled from the couch in front of us.
Despite its rodent issue, there were some things that made the house feel homey, like the frilly curtains covering the old windows. And, there were things from another era, like the old hand pump in the sink that drew the water inside. No other plumbing existed, but there was, Tommy mentioned, an outhouse in the backyard.
In The Clearing, Aunt Mae talks about how a truly haunted house is a house without people, without love. The homestead definitely was in that state, just like the Briggs' farmhouse would have been in Amy's real world. (Readers of The Clearing know that in Amy's world the farmhouse did not survive, originally.)
But for 1944, I restored the homestead to its former glory and placed it out beyond the clearing in my imagination. The house got a second story and was repainted. I added a front and back porch, complete with a grandpa smoking a pipe. The repairs that no one had been able to do to the homestead in real life, I made happen in my mind.
Perhaps that's what we do to all of our memories, whether we incorporate them into fiction, or just retell them to a friend. Lines seem a bit sharper, colors a bit brighter, situations a bit more dramatic. As we re-imagine what was, we make something new. And sometimes, we heal things, places, people. Even houses.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this little "behind the scenes" look at The Clearing. My next book, Wherever You Go, will be out this November from Harcourt. It's set in a part of Seattle near where I grew up. You can read more about it at www.heatherdavisbooks.com.
GIVEAWAY: Enter to win a copy of both The Clearing and an ARC of Wherever You Go here: http://heatherdavisbooks.wordpress.com/happenings/
Thanks and happy reading!
Heather
Heather Davis is the RITA-nominated author of Young Adult novels THE CLEARING, NEVER CRY WEREWOLF, and the forthcoming WHEREVER YOU GO (Harcourt – Fall 2011). Heather's stories blur the lines between realistic fiction and the paranormal. Though she lives and writes in the rainy Pacific Northwest, her not-so-secret dream is to run away to live in Italy. You can visit her at www.heatherdavisbooks.com and see who Heather is hosting for the hunt!
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July 27, 2011
August 1 is Scavenger Hunt day!
Join me and authors Josephine Angelini, Angela Corbett, Andrea Cremer, Colleen Houck, Heather Davis, Bree Despain, Clare Dunkle, Marley Gibson, Abbi Glines, Colleen Houck, Tara Hudson, Elana Johnson, Alexandra Monir, Lisa Nowak, Gregg Olsen, Amy Plum, Beth Revis, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Inara Scott, Sophie Jordan, Lani Woodland and many more on August 1st for a YA Scavenger hunt. Fabulous surprises wait around every corner. Don't miss out on exclusive access to bonus chapters, news on upcoming books, cover reveals, and much much more! Your special all access pass is good for one day only. All the bonus material heads back into the vault on Aug 2nd so circle the date on your calendars and join us as we celebrate what's new in YA fiction!
Here's your word puzzle to solve, which will enter you to win the grand prize of a huge pile of signed books! The clues to the puzzle can be found on all the author sites in the 'guest' author post! Good luck and happy hunting!
Welcome fans of young adult literature! Don't forget to _______ up in time to join our special event! In ____________ you roll the dice and, like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Our scavenger hunt is very similar. Surprises wait around every corner. Turn one page and you're chasing a _________ through a _____________. Turn another and you are being _________ by a _______ which leaves your heart ________. YA ________s are full of ___________ heroes who must ___________ themselves for the greater good. Some of the characters travel through ______ or have a _________ __________. If there is one thing YA has taught us, it's that if you leave your ___________ keep an eye out for a patrolling ________. They're very dangerous. Maybe not so frightening as a ____________, but still you should be careful. Also beware lest you become __________ by vampires. ______________ one is a different story. Just remember that bite has ___________ ramifications and that afterwards the sun can ______ you unless you get bitten by a glittering type. Whether you like dark, paranormal, romance, fantasy, ___________, Sci-Fi, or a combination of those, we've got something for you.
We think that each fan is a __________ and we love you all!
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July 18, 2011
Contest!
As many of you already know, I'm greedy. Greedy, greedy, greedy. So, I decided to have a simple contest to go play on my greed.
I want more reviews of The Girl in the Steel Corset on Amazon. I'd like for these reviews to be fabulous, of course, but that's not a requirement. Honest.
Here's what I'd like for you to do — either write a new review for Amazon, BN, Borders, Chapters, or post a review you're already written on Amazon, BN, Borders or Chapters. I don't care if you take it straight from your blog. Once you've done that, send me a link to your review, or the title of it, or a screen capture (whatever you want to prove you wrote the review) at KadyCross @ gmail.com (no spaces, of course). One winner will win a signed copy of 1000 Steampunk Creations by Dr. Grymm and his fabulous Mrs. A second winner will get a custom 4-color eyeshadow palette inspired by Emily. Deadline is August 15th.
By the way –if for some reason you cannot post your review on any of these sites, send me a link to where your review is published (blog, GoodReads or wherever) instead. Good luck!
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